Shell scraper

Yámana (Yaghan), 19th century
ADFrom Tierra del Fuego

Tool made from a mussel
shell

This scraping tool is composed of three
elements: a blade made from a mussel shell that has a razor sharp
edge, a smooth pebble to act as a handle and a leather cord to bind
them together and provide a sure grip. The tool would have been
used to cut and scrape animal skins, among other
functions.

The rich marine
fauna in the seas around the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego
provided the Yámana (Yaghan) and other groups of native Fuegians
with food. In this case it also provided the basic materials for
making tools. Shellfish were gathered as food from along the
shoreline at low tide. The Yámana people in particular were heavily
dependent on the sea and, at the time of first contact with
Europeans in the sixteenth century, had developed a distinctive
maritime culture based around the canoe.